Flash! B&N reports 2nd Qtr: digital up, stores down

No question, digital has been good for them. They had tried e-books years ago and it didn’t work for them, but they are clearly making an effort…and succeeding…this time around. They are being bold, and Amazon has sometimes been seen as responding to actions B&N takes. For example, B&N cut prices on their EBR (E-Book Reader)…Amazon followed, with a slightly deeper cut. B&N released a wifi model…Amazon followed. B&N has released the NOOKcolor…if Amazon releases a similar tablet computer, they’ll be seen as a step behind.

This has been a tough time for retailers to gain ground, but B&N was up 59% (at the website, at any rate).

The brick and mortar stores? Down 3.3%.

Is digital carrying the brick and mortars? Interesting question…they say that the NOOKColor is the number one selling product at Barnes & Noble…they don’t limit that to the website.

This is good news for readers generally, I think…the human kind, not the devices. ;) I like competition…I think it can drive innovation.

I do still prefer the Kindle (and especially the Kindle service). There are several reasons for that which I’ve discussed elsewhere, but I do congratulate B&N on starting to see results from their big investment in new reading technology, and for making bold moves.

3 Responses to “Flash! B&N reports 2nd Qtr: digital up, stores down”

I don’t totally trust B&N. From what I’ve read, their pre-Nook readers used a different proprietary format (PDB? i really can’t recall) than ePub. This other format was supported on the Nook, but is not supported by the Nook Color. Potentially this leaves lots of orphan books that can’t be read on any current reader.

The NOOKColor doesn’t, I believe, replace the NOOK. It’s quite a different device…a tablet versus a dedicated EBR (E-Book Reader) even though they call it a “reader’s tablet”.

The old format was, I believe, PDB. If it is no longer supported commercially, it becomes legal to circumvent (“hack”) the DRM (Digital Rights Management)…with a slightly broad interpretation of a Copyright Office statement, but I haven’t seen it challenged. However, if one can still read it with the E Ink NOOK (even if not with the NOOKColor), that wouldn’t apply. PDB can be converted with Calibre…but DRM might prevent that.